We have no record of Aristotle writing anything. All we have is the lecture notes of his students. We have recovered nothing, whatsoever, that he wrote himself, yet we still believe he exists, without question. Philosophers do not dare to question the existence of Aristotle. We have the writings of his pupils, his students, and that's all that is needed to know that Aristotle did in fact exist and he did in fact establish the foundation of logic and reason and that he was, in fact, a man that lived long ago.
Do we not also have writings from Jesus Christ's pupils, his students? If I'm not mistaken we have 4 accounts of men that documented the ministry of Jesus and the most important times of his life. Do we not also have records, and much more numerous in number and stronger in validity and reliability, of what the God of the Hebrew Bible did in relation to all of humanity over a period of thousands of years and with various authors that do not contradict one another? And yet, the most brilliant philosophers would never dare acknowledge the existence of such a God based on this evidence, even though it is even stronger than that of Aristotle, because the documents that we have talk about a man who claimed divinity and the documents that we have tell of a God who brings both justice and mercy. Could it be His judgement that men fear, and that's why the idea or mere concept of such a God must be eliminated and wiped away from all of true history? The claim often made is that there is no evidence whatsoever for His existence, and if there were any, then there is not enough to draw such an absurd conclusion. Yet, we did so with a man...why can't we do so with a man who was God?
That amazes me. It simply amazes me...but at the same time it doesn't surprise me...
Unbelief doesn't surprise me, it doesn't shock me. Men will always find every reason to doubt, and men will ignore all of the reasons to believe.
------------
Lord, help this unbelief. This society is treacherous. It hates you and it despises you. It tries to do everything it can to undermine you, to question you, to ignore you, but God, show them mercy. Open up the eyes of men and women who have the ability to make history and bring truth back into this godless culture.
Amen.
-burton 261e
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Eternal man. Eternal God.
I have confidence in one thing, that there is life after death and that my soul is eternal. That being said, your soul is eternal as well.
I know that I am an eternal being, because nothing on this earth satisfies my longing soul. Nothing here brings genuine satisfaction. Every passion I pursue and every desire that I crave, once it has been obtained, leaves me with the same feeling of utter disappointment and dissatisfaction which I formerly had before the pursuit and before the craving. It might as well have been that I had no passion or desire in the first place, so that I wouldn't end up with a bitter taste in my mouth, but that is not how things are. No. Every craving that we have and every passion that we feel, has been placed on our hearts for a purpose. That purpose being there to show us that nothing in this life brings true satisfaction. Nothing in this life can bring us to perfect completion for the very reason that this life is imperfectly incomplete, and there lies a perfectly complete life beyond this one. There is more to this life, there is a hereafter, because this life is unsettling. In this life, we run around aimlessly in circles, learning something and relearning that very thing over and over again, until the day we die as if nothing mattered in the first place. But that, right there, that yearning for something more, is what matters most. The fact that we have a sense of longing and a sense of yearning means that there truly is something that belongs after us, waiting beyond the small horizon set before us to meet us. I know that I have a soul that outlasts this miserable body because every pleasure that I have felt has left me without peace, without happiness, without joyfulness, without love, without all of those things that my mind and my heart and my soul cry out to the great beyond with such assurance and confidence for! We would not grab for these things if they were to always remain out of our reach. I know this because, if I am hungry, I can find something to eat. If I am thirsty, I can find some water to drink. But when I desire love or want joy, I cannot find these things anywhere in this visible world, in this present life. They are nowhere to be found here, and for that reason they must be found somewhere else but here, and most probably over there, with God! We have these longings, they are without a doubt there, and for no other reason than to show us that they do exist, but cannot be fully experienced until this life is over and the next is eternally lived out, and then our souls will be satisfied, for God satisfies the longing soul.
"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, without which man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11
I am also convinced, that God has done so much from before time existed until it's present and past it's end that we would be unable to fully grasp it unless we had all of eternity to be with Him in order to understand it.
-burton 261e
I know that I am an eternal being, because nothing on this earth satisfies my longing soul. Nothing here brings genuine satisfaction. Every passion I pursue and every desire that I crave, once it has been obtained, leaves me with the same feeling of utter disappointment and dissatisfaction which I formerly had before the pursuit and before the craving. It might as well have been that I had no passion or desire in the first place, so that I wouldn't end up with a bitter taste in my mouth, but that is not how things are. No. Every craving that we have and every passion that we feel, has been placed on our hearts for a purpose. That purpose being there to show us that nothing in this life brings true satisfaction. Nothing in this life can bring us to perfect completion for the very reason that this life is imperfectly incomplete, and there lies a perfectly complete life beyond this one. There is more to this life, there is a hereafter, because this life is unsettling. In this life, we run around aimlessly in circles, learning something and relearning that very thing over and over again, until the day we die as if nothing mattered in the first place. But that, right there, that yearning for something more, is what matters most. The fact that we have a sense of longing and a sense of yearning means that there truly is something that belongs after us, waiting beyond the small horizon set before us to meet us. I know that I have a soul that outlasts this miserable body because every pleasure that I have felt has left me without peace, without happiness, without joyfulness, without love, without all of those things that my mind and my heart and my soul cry out to the great beyond with such assurance and confidence for! We would not grab for these things if they were to always remain out of our reach. I know this because, if I am hungry, I can find something to eat. If I am thirsty, I can find some water to drink. But when I desire love or want joy, I cannot find these things anywhere in this visible world, in this present life. They are nowhere to be found here, and for that reason they must be found somewhere else but here, and most probably over there, with God! We have these longings, they are without a doubt there, and for no other reason than to show us that they do exist, but cannot be fully experienced until this life is over and the next is eternally lived out, and then our souls will be satisfied, for God satisfies the longing soul.
"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, without which man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11
I am also convinced, that God has done so much from before time existed until it's present and past it's end that we would be unable to fully grasp it unless we had all of eternity to be with Him in order to understand it.
-burton 261e
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